Nothing has changed says cautious Pellegrini

Manuel Pellegrini insisted nothing has changed in the race for the Premier League title, despite City beating Crystal Palace and Liverpool losing to Chelsea.

The Chilean says there are no favourites because three teams are more than capable of winning the league with the Blues’ rivals still very much in the hunt.

“The only thing that is different is that we are not depending on other teams and what matters is only what we do between now and the end of the season,” said Pellegrini.

“I was obviously very happy with Chelsea’s win, but this is far from the end of the title race because all three teams have very hard games still to play and as I said at the start of the season, I believe the championship will be decided on the last day of the season.

“What we do know is that we need to play our remaining games with the same levels of concentration and intensity as we showed today in our final matches - but it has been a very good weekend for us.”

The Blues’ 2-0 victory over Palace was doubly pleasing for Pellegrini who says that Chelsea’s win at Anfield added more pressure on his team to come away with a result at Selhurst Park.

“It was not easy to come here and win,” he said. “Crystal Palace are in a very good moment and playing without any pressure on them – that’s why it was important to go for the match from the beginning and make sure we didn’t give them any chances to score.

It’s been a very strange Premier League for us because we’ve always been so far from the top of the table because we had three games in hand and even when we played two of those games, we were still three points behind Liverpool

...Pellegrini...

“But I’ve always told the players we never give up – hope is what you must continue to have, all the way until the end. I always said this season’s race would go until the final day and nothing will change my mind.

“We have one game in hand, but we must win that match – the best thing to come out of this round of games is that our destiny was out of our hands, but not that’s not the case anymore.

“There are no favourites to win the title and at the end of the season we will see who the best team is.”